activities of these various formations and was
responsible for such special projects as the human experiments and
"final solution" of the Jewish question.

The Tribunal finds that knowledge of these criminal activities
was sufficiently general to justify declaring that the SS was a
criminal organization to the extent hereinafter described. It does
appear that an attempt was made to keep secret some phases of its
activities. but its criminal programs were so widespread, and
involved slaughter on such a gigantic scale, that its criminal
activities must have been widely known. It must be recognized,
moreover, that the criminal activities of the SS followed quite
logically from the principles on which it was organized. Every effort
had been made to make the SS a highly disciplined organization
composed of the elite of National Socialism. Himmler had stated that
there were people in Germany "who become sick when they see
these black coats" and that he did not expect that "they
should be loved by too many." Himmler also indicated his view
that the SS was concerned with perpetuating the elite racial stock
with the object of making Europe a Germanic continent and the SS was
instructed that it was designed to assist the Nazi Government in the
ultimate domination of Europe and the elimination of all inferior
races. This mystic and fanatical belief in the superiority of the
Nordic German developed into the studied contempt and even hatred of
other races which led to criminal activities of the type outlined
above being considered as a matter of course if not a matter of
pride. The actions of a soldier in the Waffen SS who in September
1939, acting entirely on his own initiative, killed 50 Jewish
laborers whom he had been guarding, were described by the statement
that as an SS man, he was "particularly sensitive to the sight
of Jews," and had acted "quite thoughtlessly in a youthful
spirit of adventure" and a sentence of three-years imprisonment
imposed on him was dropped under an amnesty. Hess wrote with truth
that the Waffen SS were more suitable for the specific tasks to be
solved in occupied territory owing to their extensive training in
questions of race and nationality. Himmler, in a series of speeches
made in 1943, indicated his pride in the ability of the SS to carry
out these criminal acts. He encouraged his men to be "tough and
ruthless", he spoke of shooting "thousands of leading
Poles", and thanked them for their cooperation and lack of
squeamishness at the sight of hundreds and thousands of corpses of
their victims. He extolled ruthlessness in exterminating the Jewish
race and later described this process as "delousing." These
speeches show that the general attitude prevailing in the SS was
consistent with these criminal acts.